Fun Felt Tree for Fridge

Here's an easy, fun decoration for the fridge for Christmas:

A felt Christmas tree!  Complete with felt ornaments.

Here's how to whip up your own:

You'll need a piece of large cardboard, lots and lots of green felt, brown felt, glue (I used Tacky glue and hot glue), medium strength magnetics (I bought a package at Hobby Lobby) and finally felt in various colors for the ornaments.

First, cut out the main part of the tree out of the large piece of cardboard (I just sketched it out first), next cut out a rectangle for the trunk.  Cover the main part of the tree with green felt, gluing it into place (okay, so mine got a little messy on the back) and cover the rectangle with brown felt.  Glue magnets on the cardboard.

 And then place on fridge!  I made one side of the tree flat (as if you're only really looking at 3/4 of the tree- not the entire tree) just to make it interesting and to make it fit better on my fridge.

Then cut out cheerful ornaments out of felt:

   I cut out hearts out of red felt.

 The felt ornaments stick on the felt tree.  Which also makes it fun to play with!

I asked Annika and Ava to create more ornaments for the tree:

(I made the stars and hearts)

Ava made some sort of Santa Claus (I think it's the Santy Claus from "How The Grinch Stole Christmas").

It's fun moving the ornaments around.  And the girls love creating new ornaments to stick on their tree!  I'm planning on making a couple of owls out of felt to stick on the tree.  Maybe we'll cut out some snowflakes out of felt to put on the tree as well.

Sharing this on Skip to My Lou's Made By You Mondays!

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My stick-y Christmas chandelier!

A while back I had a brain storm- a light bulb that went off in my head- on how to decorate the chandelier over our dining table for Christmas.  It involved sticks.  

We stopped at Ikea on our way home from Chicago last weekend and I bought a bunch of these lovely, curly sticks (for $5).  Perfect!

And after a few unsuccessful attempts at getting the sticks to stay on the chandelier (involving copious amounts of too thin wire) I had another light bulb go off...and I went in search of an unused fake wreath that was in my Christmas stash.  I cut the wreath open and made it sit on the arms of the chandelier.  Then I stuck the pretty sticks using the wreath to hold them in place.  I decorated the sticks and the wreath with my plastic red Christmas ornaments and the straw stars I already had.  

I really like how it turned out (as usual, the photos don't do it justice).  I don't think I'm done yet either.  I'd like to get some glittery birds (or more likely- glitter some birds) and hang them from the ceiling using string so that the lights shine on them.  

Taken at night:

Taken during the day.

I love decorating for Christmas!  It certainly is a mood uplifter- which is a good thing this time of year!  The best part....I only spent $5 on the sticks for the entire project!  (although, if I want to create glittery birds I'll need to buy glitter and birds so that will add to the cost of the project).

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Nikolaus and Krampus

Nikolaus and Krampus visited our house this year!  It's pretty darn amazing that they manage to find us here in Wisconsin.  After all, the Krampus we know of comes from the Alps in Austria. 

On the eve of December 4th the girls have to clean a pair of their shoes as best they can and leave them in front of their door.  If they've been good Nikolaus bring goodies (usually chocolates, oranges and nuts).  If they've been bad they get taken away by Krampus.  So far the girls have managed to keep Krampus from whisking them away to his lair.  Good thing!

How on Earth did Nikolaus know that the girls love Mirabell Mozartkugeln?  I do believe it's their most favorite of all!!!!

Thank you (or should I say, Danke?) Nikolaus and Krampus for the lovely & yummy gifts you brought us!!!!!!

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An Amazing Nativity Carving

I forgot to post this photo in the Christkindlmarkt post....We several of these amazing nativity scenes for sale. I should have taken photos of all of them!  Just imagine the amount of time it takes to carve the intricate details....I certainly don't have the patience for that.  LOL!

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There's a Christkindlmarkt in Downtown Chicago!

We were doing some reminiscing of Holidays Past and were wishing we could go to a German/Austrian Christmas Market. 

Guess what?

There's one in Downtown Chicago (at the Daley Plaza)!

Considering that we didn't have to pay a couple of thousand dollars for airplane tickets and spend hours at various airports (not to mention the whole TSA screening issue) I'd say this was a bargain-and-a-half!  We only paid $32 to park in a parking garage.  Ouch!  And that's not including all the goodies we purchased at the market. 

So on one fine Sunday morning we went -->

In front of the giant Christmas Tree

 In front of one of the booths....selling Lebkuchen and other goodies.  Most of the booths were run by Germans selling their wares (they're here for this market and then they go home).

 Hey!  You can't forget the pigeons....they deserve a fire to warm up, right?

 A lovely nativity set.

 The candy shop we waited in a long line to get in...oh the goodies!!!!Many were a blast from my distant past.  Now I know why it's called the Windy City.  Brrrrrr!!!!!!  The cold wind made this outing just a tad bit on the uncomfortable side.  Thank goodness for gluehwein and hot apple cider!

 Another view of the market

 See all those candies/goodies in the Sweet Shop?  Many of them came home with us.  :)

 No...these aren't the roasted chestnuts we're accustomed to getting at Christmas markets in Austria (heisse Maroni).  These are candied pecans.  They were good but no substitute for those roasted chestnuts (that were sadly missing from this market!).  Notice the missing tooth?  It came out when Annika was at school.  I had no idea it was that loose!

 I think Ava is grumpy because I didn't let her hold my bag of candied pecans.  Poor thing.  I'm sure she'll get over it soon!

 Beautiful and very expensive nutcrackers from Germany.

 A wall of Cuckoo Clocks!  Couldn't resist taking a photo of all these lovelies.  They had some gorgeous ones that only cost a few arms and legs.

 I'm not familiar with German Potato Pancakes.  We tried the Crepes- they were more like Palatschinken.  Yum!  By the time we finished these lovely "crepes" we were ready to high tail it out of the market.  My legs and feet were frozen!

So...considering the 7 hour round-trip drive and the out-of-this-world expensive parking I'd say this market was a smash hit!

We meant come on Saturday but a very courteous snow storm came and dumped 8" of snow on us on Friday night/all day Saturday so that plan went down the toilet!  We didn't give up hope though!

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Platteville Children's Choir Fall Concert::Annika's First Choir Concert!

After months and months of choir practice on Monday nights (not to mention the audition late last spring) Annika's 

FIRST EVER CHOIR CONCERT 

is here!

Annika sings in with the Apprentice singers in the Platteville Children's Choir. 

(there are three levels in the Children's Choir: Apprentice, Choristers and Cantabile)

Here she is ...excited & ready to perform!

The program this evening had all three choirs singing (individually) followed by a performance by the Platteville Chorale (the adult choir).  At the very end all the children's choirs joined the adults on stage to perform Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" (okay, I don't think it was written by Louis Armstrong but everyone knows him for this song).  Can you spot Annika in the front?

 Here she is:

The children were quite pleased with themselves- and they had every right to be proud!  They performed beautifully!  Each group performed at least one piece of music that was more challenging than the other pieces.  Annika's group (the Apprentice singers) performed: "The Singing Bird", "Tue, Tue", "That's What We'd Do" and, Annika's favorite, "Swingin' on a Star".

I didn't get a photo of just her group singing (felt too self conscious about taking a photo during her performance).  So these photos show all the children. Normally, Mark would have been singing with the Chorale but since he's started his MBA program that has cut into fun evening activities.  School will do that!  Sigh....

And here's another AWESOME thing that happened...Grandma and Grandpa were able to attend Annika's first ever concert!  Woo hoo!  Thanks for coming!

We're so proud of you, Annika!

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A few fall crafty projects....

I've been working on a few craft-y projects. Yes indeed-y....I've been crafty!  (insert maniacal little laugh)

Remember- you should be able to enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Here are my (former) Halloween stair mice available from Martha Stewart.  

I've turned the lovely little mice into Thanksgiving mice.

Complete with pilgrim hats and pieces of pie and a turkey leg for them to munch on.  

Here's how I made the hats, pie and turkey leg:

First I Googled "Thanksgiving" and searched through the Clip Art Images listed (you can search specifically for clip art...didn't know that until I made these).  Then I drew the clip art images on a piece of paper- keeping in mind that I would be cutting out the pieces from foam (and by drawing it out I could get the proper scale to fit the mice).  I cut the pieces out of foam and glued them using the low heat temperature hot glue gun.  I kept asking Mark after I'd finished a piece if he could tell me what the item looked like.  If it looked like the item I was trying to make- I kept it as is...otherwise it was back to the drawing board!  

The piece of pie is actually made out of five pieces of foam.  

And yes, we have a few tiles and grout that need fixing.

My fall front entry way arrangement...love pumpkins!  (plus I love the Winged Creature Annika made for me ... with eyes made of washers...that is nestled in my planter)

Fall hanging basket....

......filled with small pumpkins and fabric oak leaves.  What do you think of this? Does it need more leaves?  I spent too long Googling fall outdoor hanging basket ideas and I came up with very little....so I had to get creative and come up with my own!  I really hate having hooks that have nothing hanging on them.  I think that when it gets really cold out I'll make bird seed ornaments to hang on the branches.  

 My fun chalkboard in the kitchen.  Annika has helped to embellish it! (it used to just say, "Smile")

My fall front door wreath.  It's a mish mash of things I found at home.  The frame says, "Welcome".

I saw painted acorns in one of the recent Better Homes and Gardens magazine -and it looked easy enough for me to try!  (I just painted the bottom of the acorns and glued twine to the caps of them in order to hang them.  Oh...I should add that I did bake the acorns beforehand in order to attempt killing any worms inside them.  I also glued the caps to the bottoms of the acorns before hanging them)

Now here's a fun piece of artwork...can you tell what it says?

This isn't my original idea but I think it's super clever.  I got the idea from Hodge: Podge. I thought it was super fun so I had to give it a try.  Especially since I had a canvas laying around.  I painted the canvas black with acrylic paint.  Then I cut out the letters using my handy dandy Cricut machine.  I glued the letters in place (using several extra-large rulers as guides) and then coated the entire thing with Mod Podge (to seal the letters).  

The girls also got a Case of the Crafties and made these cute little ghosts using pieces of white fabric, googly eyes and cotton fluff for the head (wrapped with cotton twine).

My creative Annika! 

I find that my creative juices flow in fits and spurts.  Do you find that your Creativity flows evenly or comes in fits and spurts like mine does?  I sure wish there was something I could do to keep it around longer....

I'm sharing these crafts on Just a Girl's Share and Show Day.  Go check out the other fun projects that are linked up on her blog!


Thanks for visiting!

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